February 17, 2005 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The World’s Banker: A Story of Failed States, Financial Crises, and the Wealth and Poverty of Nations
by Sebastian Mallaby
Sebastian Mallaby begins this portrait of the World Bank and its director, James Wolfensohn, by stating: “I didn’t write this book to pick an argument.” Yet Mr. Mallaby’s discussion of the clash between the bank and nonprofit organizations, which he says are too focused on narrow goals that often undermine the bank’s work, raises issues about the role of nonprofit groups in development that will probably spark contentious debate.
Mr. Mallaby, a columnist at The Washington Post, describes Mr. Wolfensohn’s rise from modest roots in Australia to attend Harvard Business School and to become an eminent Wall Street deal maker with a fortune of more than $100-million. Driven by intense ambition, Mr. Wolfensohn arrived at the bank in 1995 determined to shake up its bureaucracy and improve its ability to reach the world’s poorest people.
The book discusses how Mr. Wolfensohn, who will step down from his post in May, embraced debt relief for some of the poorest nations, encouraged debate on development issues such as corruption, and used ideas from business to streamline the bank’s operations.
Mr. Mallaby also describes how the bank director tried to ally himself with nonprofit groups that often campaign for environmental or social protections attached to bank projects, but says that Mr. Wolfensohn’s desire to please everyone often hindered development work. The author notes occasions when the bank bowed to advocacy groups that he says did not represent the interests of people for whom they claimed to be speaking. He writes that unless the bank and governments “wake up to the Lilliputian menace” of small groups too preoccupied by their pet issues to see the bigger development agenda, the bank will be unable to fulfill its mission of helping the world’s poorest people.
Publisher: Penguin Putnam, 375 Hudson Street, New York, N.Y. 10014; (212) 366-2272 or (800) 788-6262; fax (212) 366-2952; http://www.penguinputnam.com; 462 pages; $29.95; ISBN 1-59420-023-8.
